I decided to tackle a book that found its way in my social
media circles called The Singularity and Socialism. This book referenced many
people whose work I was already familiar with, such as Kevin Kelly, Ray Kurzweil,
Hayek. So I thought why not? Provoking title too. Basically this is a pro-libertarian
techno-optimistic book that brings in the ideas of complexity and chaos theory
to the world of economics. And I have to say I agree with much of it, because
let’s face it, we can’t doubt that the change Hericlitus talked about 2500
years ago is just getting more rampant! And that makes it near impossible to
centralize all the knowledge that has accumulated from the top-down.
Townsend goes on to mention that “Hayek began as early as
the mid 1930’s to begin to think of the market and economics as well as all
social phenomenon, culture and civilization, not as a given and static
condition reacted to by discrete autonomous rational actors and created by
omnipotent rational planners from on high, but as interdependent yet
heterogeneous interacting agents who are constantly evolving and bringing about
an emergent and spontaneous order that is constantly adapting and changing to,
and discovering, new information, just as the cells in complexity theorists
computer simulations act.” Yup, so try to wrap your heads around that Federal
Reserve. Just can’t happen, but they can play chess for a while until the queen
gets taken out!
Hayek probably was one of our first systems theorists, and
got that the world does not lead by intellect alone. Hayek observes: “It is not
our intellect that created our morals; rather, human interactions governed by
our morals make possible the growth of reason and those capabilities associated
with it. Man became intelligent because there was tradition –that which lies
between instinct and reason– for him to learn. This tradition, in turn,
originated not from a capacity rationally to interpret observed facts but from
habits of responding.” Now, that makes sense to me. We are not purely rational
agents. And that explains all the dumb and beautiful things we do too.
So why do so many insist that government should solve our
economic woes? Again Hayek makes a lot of sense when he says, “the main lesson
which the true liberal [classical, not modern] must learn from the success of
the socialists is that it was their courage to be Utopian which gained them the
support of the intellectuals and therefore an influence on public opinion.” You
see, if you don’t have real religion, you’re going to make one up through some
utopian impulse. And that’s one of our many fallibilities… so better to get
real religion and let Caesar have what is Caesar’s!
Townsend’s book has many good insights. One shortfall is he
doesn’t seem to ground himself in any real religion, so I have my doubts that
market forces alone can cure all social ills. But more on that later!